As black history month winds to a close, my life continues to be full of fun and excitement.
On Friday I went on another shark trip. I was in charge of writing the blog for the day, so I will insert here the entry I made for the program:
Preparation for the trip this morning was carried out with efficiency and enthusiasm. Interns and students alike were itching to get out on the water and start reeling in the sharks. There was an unmistakable excitement in the fresh early morning air that built as the Miami-Dade College students volunteered to load the bait-crates with our collection of assorted fish parts. Watching them jump in to help without hesitating at the sight of sliced fish reassured us that this was going to be a fantastic day for catching sharks.
[The level of anticipation was very high as the hooks were being baited and dropped]
When all was ready, we set forth on our way seaward. Everyone pitched in when the time came to set the drumlines out with the tasty fish steaks attached. An efficient round of setting the lines brought us to our lunch break right on schedule. We used the opportunity to get to know the students, share shark stories, answer questions about sharks and shark research, and demonstrate exactly what will happen when we do catch one. The atmosphere became electric as soon as the time came to pull back around to the first line.
[There was a slow start to the day but it quickly picked up from there]
One of the things we have to deal with is nature's biting sense of humor. All of the buildup for reeling in sharks started to fade after 9 consecutive lines were pulled up empty. Just as hopes were starting to fall, I felt a good deal of tension on the 10th line. Sure enough, a 7ft nurse shark was on the other end.
[A total of 4 nurse sharks were pulled in today. All of them were large and were therefore not brought onto the deck.]
Like clockwork, everyone assumed their proper positions and we geared up with the tail rope. Nurse sharks have tougher skin than other species thus we do not bother with the muscle biopsy. They are notorious for putting up a fight making it difficult to safely bring the larger ones on board, hence the decision to rope the tail and make our measurements without pulling the shark out of the water. After an exhausting struggle, we successfully brought the nurse to the boat, roped the tail, and stabilized it without causing it any harm. Measurements were taken and morale was boosted as each student was able to come and feel the rough scales of this bottom-dweller.
[Here a black tip is being measured. The pump in its mouth causes water to flow across the gills allowing the shark to maintain oxygen levels.]
We let the shark go and with a renewed vigor proceeded to the next drumline. Throughout the rest of the day we managed to pull in 3 more nurse sharks, two black tips, and one lemon. The nurses tested our strength and tail-roping abilities but the black tips and lemon were brought to the deck, measured, sampled, and tagged with the precision and efficiency expected of an experienced team.
That night I ended up going to a UM baseball game where Appalachian State U upset us 7-5. That was my 4th UM sporting event I have attended and it was the 4th loss I've witnessed. Yes, it is sad.
On Saturday, there was an event at the Frost School of Music (in the heart of the main UM campus) called “Viola Day.” Yes, there was in fact an entire day devoted to sharing the love for the best instrument ever. I attended a couple of the forums and heard the concert. It was really quite nice to be back in the music atmosphere, albeit very brief.
Today was another early morning with a wake-up at 6am (30 minutes later than Friday morning!) but with plans of diving, it was completely worth it. I should mention I have the freakish ability to be wide awake within about 2 minutes of waking up without needing any energy supplement: it works about 90% of the time but it's amazing. Anyway we made it out to the marine campus, loaded up the van, and headed toward Miami Beach to load the boat at the marina. The dive boat was disgustingly full: there were 49 people on a 50 person capacity boat and easily a hundred tanks (2 per diver plus spares). One of them was a good friend I work with at the dive shop. It was completely overloaded but the diving ended up going very well. The dives were with my graduate “scientific research techniques in diving” course and we spent our time working on positioning, finning techniques, and skills. The highlight of the dives actually was on the descent of the first dive when I found a dive knife. This is a piece of equipment I've been thinking of buying for a few months and now no longer have the need for one. After the dives we came home, showered, changed, and met up at one of our classmate's houses for a bar-b-que. We made our own burgers, had great conversation, and ended up on the roof. Since we met at the marine campus at 7 and some coconuts caught my eyes, I'd been dying to have one but had no way to get up the tree to retrieve one. Earlier in the afternoon I had spotted a coconut tree that was particularly close to the roof of the friend's house. When we finally decided to go up to the roof, I went straight for the tree, grabbed a loose palm branch, and after about a minute of shaking, successfully dislodged the branch and several coconuts in the process. About 5 minutes after grabbing a large knife from the kitchen and hacking away, we were passing around the freshest coconut water many of them have ever had. By the time we finished drinking them, cut them open, and scraped out some of the meat, it was time to go. What a spectacular end to a great weekend!!!
On Friday I went on another shark trip. I was in charge of writing the blog for the day, so I will insert here the entry I made for the program:
Preparation for the trip this morning was carried out with efficiency and enthusiasm. Interns and students alike were itching to get out on the water and start reeling in the sharks. There was an unmistakable excitement in the fresh early morning air that built as the Miami-Dade College students volunteered to load the bait-crates with our collection of assorted fish parts. Watching them jump in to help without hesitating at the sight of sliced fish reassured us that this was going to be a fantastic day for catching sharks.
[The level of anticipation was very high as the hooks were being baited and dropped]
When all was ready, we set forth on our way seaward. Everyone pitched in when the time came to set the drumlines out with the tasty fish steaks attached. An efficient round of setting the lines brought us to our lunch break right on schedule. We used the opportunity to get to know the students, share shark stories, answer questions about sharks and shark research, and demonstrate exactly what will happen when we do catch one. The atmosphere became electric as soon as the time came to pull back around to the first line.
[There was a slow start to the day but it quickly picked up from there]
One of the things we have to deal with is nature's biting sense of humor. All of the buildup for reeling in sharks started to fade after 9 consecutive lines were pulled up empty. Just as hopes were starting to fall, I felt a good deal of tension on the 10th line. Sure enough, a 7ft nurse shark was on the other end.
[A total of 4 nurse sharks were pulled in today. All of them were large and were therefore not brought onto the deck.]
Like clockwork, everyone assumed their proper positions and we geared up with the tail rope. Nurse sharks have tougher skin than other species thus we do not bother with the muscle biopsy. They are notorious for putting up a fight making it difficult to safely bring the larger ones on board, hence the decision to rope the tail and make our measurements without pulling the shark out of the water. After an exhausting struggle, we successfully brought the nurse to the boat, roped the tail, and stabilized it without causing it any harm. Measurements were taken and morale was boosted as each student was able to come and feel the rough scales of this bottom-dweller.
[Here a black tip is being measured. The pump in its mouth causes water to flow across the gills allowing the shark to maintain oxygen levels.]
We let the shark go and with a renewed vigor proceeded to the next drumline. Throughout the rest of the day we managed to pull in 3 more nurse sharks, two black tips, and one lemon. The nurses tested our strength and tail-roping abilities but the black tips and lemon were brought to the deck, measured, sampled, and tagged with the precision and efficiency expected of an experienced team.
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| Alex Rodriguez Park |
That night I ended up going to a UM baseball game where Appalachian State U upset us 7-5. That was my 4th UM sporting event I have attended and it was the 4th loss I've witnessed. Yes, it is sad.
 |
| Viola Day concert |
On Saturday, there was an event at the Frost School of Music (in the heart of the main UM campus) called “Viola Day.” Yes, there was in fact an entire day devoted to sharing the love for the best instrument ever. I attended a couple of the forums and heard the concert. It was really quite nice to be back in the music atmosphere, albeit very brief.
Today was another early morning with a wake-up at 6am (30 minutes later than Friday morning!) but with plans of diving, it was completely worth it. I should mention I have the freakish ability to be wide awake within about 2 minutes of waking up without needing any energy supplement: it works about 90% of the time but it's amazing. Anyway we made it out to the marine campus, loaded up the van, and headed toward Miami Beach to load the boat at the marina. The dive boat was disgustingly full: there were 49 people on a 50 person capacity boat and easily a hundred tanks (2 per diver plus spares). One of them was a good friend I work with at the dive shop. It was completely overloaded but the diving ended up going very well. The dives were with my graduate “scientific research techniques in diving” course and we spent our time working on positioning, finning techniques, and skills. The highlight of the dives actually was on the descent of the first dive when I found a dive knife. This is a piece of equipment I've been thinking of buying for a few months and now no longer have the need for one. After the dives we came home, showered, changed, and met up at one of our classmate's houses for a bar-b-que. We made our own burgers, had great conversation, and ended up on the roof. Since we met at the marine campus at 7 and some coconuts caught my eyes, I'd been dying to have one but had no way to get up the tree to retrieve one. Earlier in the afternoon I had spotted a coconut tree that was particularly close to the roof of the friend's house. When we finally decided to go up to the roof, I went straight for the tree, grabbed a loose palm branch, and after about a minute of shaking, successfully dislodged the branch and several coconuts in the process. About 5 minutes after grabbing a large knife from the kitchen and hacking away, we were passing around the freshest coconut water many of them have ever had. By the time we finished drinking them, cut them open, and scraped out some of the meat, it was time to go. What a spectacular end to a great weekend!!!
when I saw the shark's photo first I thought that someone's hand is inside his mouth, of course that can't be done unless the shark is dead ... and I know that you will never be involved in a shark murder!
ReplyDeleteHaha, that would be very bad. Even dead, it would be very bad to put a hand in there. Ouch! You are right, I would never be involved in a shark murder. They are incredible creatures.
ReplyDelete